Signs of the Times

Now this really IS interesting. A Kickstarter art project in highly commercial Los Angeles. UrbanAir transforms existing urban billboards to living, suspended bamboo gardens. Embedded with intelligent technology, UrbanAir transforms billboards into an open space in the urban skyline. It's really an evergreen artwork, symbol, and instrument for a green future. Whatever you think, it certainly gets the discussion going - something to talk about in the traffic jams below. And so it has already achieved its goal of being a catalyst for discussion. With your help, Urban Air will be towering above more Los Angeles freeways in the course of 2013. Like them on Facebook: or dare to follow them on Twitter: Urban Air has been designed, engineered, and has already secured one billboard to carry their flagship project. Let's hope the idea grows as fast as the bamboo in California. 

I also saw a fascinating photo from Doc Searls today, who snapped this photo of an empty billboard on top of the Comfort Inn in Meriden, Connecticut. The site owner has scrapped the ad in favour of using the frame to host several mobile phone repeaters which generate more money than the ad would have done in its place. Reminds me of a Russian over the horizon radar station. 

So wouldn't it be great if these two ideas were combined, with the bamboo being a natural camouflage for the cell tower antennas? In my opinion a much better option than the fake plastic cellphone trees that some mobile operators are trying to sneak into neighbourhoods. Don't believe me? Check out the evidence. 

Because we don't need any more of these fake trees do we? Look at some of the other examples of Robert Voit's site.